Australian scientific research and innovation received a A$5.3 billion dollar boost following this week's announcement of extended funding.

The funding, worth US$3.8 billion, extends an earlier 2001 plan by five years and emphasises commercialising innovations.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard said that while some of the announced spending was not new, the multi-year plan "represents the biggest ever commitment by a government in the area of science and innovation" and was 75% larger than the original 2001 package.

The biggest single new item in the Backing Australia's Ability plan was a $1 billion dollar investment to merge and expand existing programs that help researchers market their discoveries, an initiative Howard said would turn ideas into jobs.

"The package has a strong focus on encouraging the growth of innovating Australian companies which produce internationally competitive goods and services, increase productivity and create jobs," said a joint ministerial statement.

"Combined with other science and innovation programs they take the Australian government's 10-year investment in this key area to around $52 billion."

The plan also includes an extra $305 million for CSIRO, an extra $1.19 billion for Australian Research Council national competitive grants and an extra $1.1 billion to support research infrastructure.

But FASTS' Professor Snow Barlow said the "crucial benchmark" would be the total government investment in r&d as a percentage of gross domestic product.

"And that will not be known until budget night when the bulk of r&d funding commitments are announced," he said.

The Australian federal government will deliver its 2004/2005 budget next Tuesday evening, Australian time.

While Barlow said FASTS welcomed the initiative to help strengthen science in schools, he said this would not address the disincentives resulting from the government's Higher Education Contribution Scheme.

"FASTS had also hoped for more new measures to encourage increased r&d intensity in industry," he said. "Business expenditure on r&d is very low by international standards and the government could have taken a more positive role to encourage firms to invest in r&d."

Professor Kurt Lambeck of the AAS wanted more details, for example on the criteria for distribution of grants.

Keeping up spending

ATSE president Dr John Zillman said the growth in government spending would need to keep pace with economic growth if Australia was to be world competitive.

"The federal government estimates it will commit around $52 billion to science and technology over the 10 years to 2010/11, an average of $5.2 billion a year, which gives a tremendous sense of confidence in the future," he said.

"However, if the economy continues to grow at 3.5% a year or if inflation runs at the projected 2.2%, then the government would need to invest $6-7.5 billion a year in science and technology just to keep pace over the next seven years."

"The Academy urges the Government to keep an eye on the potential funding gap which could open up in the later years."